China Philharmonic Is Too Disciplined, But Has Potential

March 17, 2005|By MATTHEW ERIKSON; Courant Staff Writer

History was made Tuesday evening at the University of Connecticut's Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.

The concert by the China Philharmonic was one stop in the orchestra's first tour of this country. Founded in 2000 by its artistic director and principal conductor Long Yu, 40, the orchestra performed a program mixing East and West, contemporary and standard repertoire selections.

By the looks of it, Yu was the oldest person on stage. Earnest young faces surrounded the conductor in a program that received an extra boost of youthful energy from pianist Lang Lang in Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. When most of the world's touring orchestras have a 100-plus year history, there's something exciting in witnessing the early development of an orchestra where Western classical music was once considered counter-revolutionary.

Still, if the China Philharmonic succeeded in presenting itself as a tightly disciplined ensemble with lots of potential, there was still plenty in the musical offerings that got lost in the translation.

Beginning with Rimsky-Korsakov's Overture to ``The Tsar's Bride,'' the orchestra excelled with remarkable unanimity in the strings. Yu's conducting had the flailing look of a traffic cop, his motions mostly limited to the shoulder down. Musically the result was square, phrases were given little time to breathe and dynamic changes were so tightly controlled to render the music flat.

Aside from some queasy intonation in the orchestra's winds, the performance of Bartok's ``The Miraculous Mandarin'' Suite missed the bursting ferocity and graphic evocation inherent in the score. The precision was there, shored up by the orchestra's fine percussion. But alas, most notes lacked meaning or soul.

Better moments for the orchestra came in two Chinese works, ``Moon Reflected on the Erquan Fountain" by Hua Yanjun (in an orchestral arrangement by Wu Zuqiang) and Ye Xiaogang's ``Das Lied auf der Erde,'' commissioned by the orchestra for this tour and based on the same Chinese poems Mahler used for his song cycle. The clarity of the China Philharmonic's strings harmonized with the static polyphony of the first work. The song cycle, sung effectively by soprano Luwa We, included a mix of authentic Eastern percussion and neo-Romantic orchestral color.

No doubt for many in the audience, 22-year-old Chinese piano phenom Lang Lang was the star attraction. And sure enough, his famous elastic fingers and unique artistry were on display. Yet what was surprising was the degree to which the pianist deferred to the orchestra. The earlier variations had the effect of chamber music as Lang Lang and the orchestra worked together to produce different colors and timbres. With the famous Variation XVIII, Lang Lang broke from the pack with elegant phrasing and beautiful voicing.

Still, it's a pity that the performance was more about effect than delving into the different personalities of each of the inventive variations. To the sad disappointment of some, Lang Lang played no encore.